1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a spring operation device of a circuit breaker, and more particularly, to a spring operation device of a circuit breaker for actuating a movable contactor using elastic restoring force of a spring.
2. Description of Related Art
A circuit breaker is a device for breaking the flow of electricity in an electric power system when a fault current occurs in the electric power system. Here, the circuit breaker is required to promptly interrupt power flowing in the electric power system by actuating the movable contactor when an abnormal situation occurs.
In order to perform a closing operation and a breaking operation of the circuit breaker, a spring operation device actuating a movable contactor using elastic restoring force of a spring is used.
The spring operation device includes a closing spring applying closing driving power to a movable contactor and a breaking spring applying breaking driving power to the movable contactor.
However, in the related art spring operation device, the closing spring and the breaking spring are implemented as a single spring, and thus, in order to obtain elastic restoring force great enough to actuate the movable contactor, a voluminous spring able to store a large amount of energy is used as the single spring. Also, in order to secure a high degree of elastic restoring force and durability, a hot wound coil spring formed of a relatively high-priced material is used as the single spring.
Thus, the related art spring operation device is disadvantageous in that manufacturing costs thereof are high, there is a limitation in reducing a volume of a device, and there is a limitation in disposing a component, due to the inclusion of a single hot wound coil spring.
In addition, in the related art spring operation device, a closing side and a breaking side are configured as mutually separated shafts, and a mechanism enabling the closing side shaft and the breaking side shaft to interwork with each other includes components such as a plurality of links, cams, and levers, leading to an increase in the volume of the device.
The aforementioned spring operation device using a single spring is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2013-0072147 and Korean Patent Registration No. 1132909.